CSTEC Held Horizon 2020 Infoday in Xi’an

CSTEC Held Horizon 2020 Infoday in Xi’an

On May 8th, 2014, China Science and Technology Exchange Center (CSTEC) held a Horizon 2020 Infoday in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, which attracted over 130 participants from local research centers, universities and enterprises.

Dr. XING Jijun, Deputy Director General of CSTEC, and Mr. LIU Minsheng, Deputy Director General of Xi’an Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology addressed the event. Invited were Dr. Philippe Vialatte, Minister Counsellor of science, technology and environment with EU Delegation to China who introduced the general landscape and policy on Horizon 2020 and Ms. Andrea Strelcova, Country Representative with Euraxess Links China who introduced Euraxess and its work in China and encouraged Chinese researchers to follow funded research opportunities through Euraxess. Mr. DONG Keqin with CSTEC presented on the first calls of Horizon 2020 and elaborated on how China can participate.

In his welcome speech, Dr. XING Jijun noted that President XI Jinping’s March visit to EU countries and headquarter had brought EU-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to a new high. As an important part of the bilateral relations, China-EU science and innovation cooperation enjoyed a solid basis and broad prospect. In this regard, Horizon 2020 should serve as an important official platform bolstering China-EU research and innovation collaboration.

The audience showed great interest in the information provided, responding with various questions on Chinese participation. The local researchers hoped the authorities from both China and EU would step up efforts in further bridging bilateral cooperation.

On May 9th, Dr. XING led the CSTEC delegation to the 2014 International Seminar on Technical Standards of NFC Juice in Changsha, Hunan Province and addressed the event. The event related to a FP7 project which aimed at developing technical standards for the orange juice industry in the field of agriculture. Academician YUAN Longping, a famous Chinese agricultural scientist, also attended the seminar.

The above events served as important steps of CSTEC for increasing awareness on EU research and innovation programmes and opportunities and enhancing international cooperation capacity building for local areas. CSTEC would help bring in more international S&T resources to enable local governments to go global in terms of research and innovation.

DRAGON-STAR is funded by FP7, aiming to support the Chinese participation in Horizon 2020, the reciprocity originating from the signed EU-China Scientific Cooperation Agreement, the bilateral cooperation in scientific, technological and industrial research and innovation fields, and the ongoing EU - China Innovation Cooperation Dialogue.

DRAGON-STARPLUS follows its predecessor (DRAGON-STAR), in its important mandate to provide support services to European and Chinese researchers and policy makers, and to offer a flexible platform to facilitate policy discussions between European and Chinese stakeholders. The project has received funding under European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under Grant Agreement No645775